What's the onboarding process look like where you are? or the best ones you've seen?
I took on a sales role at a small startup, there was 1 inside sales rep, a "sales director" and the VP of the company was also doing a fair amount of sales still. I was a customer before working for the company, so I knew the products very well.
On my first day, I was handed a stack of papers with leads from a trade show the company had just attended and told to start calling and that I would sit with the VP later in the week and do some sales training. The list of leads was just a list of names with phone # and email, no notes. I started calling the numbers, most had no idea about our company and weren't even in the right industry to be purchasing our products. But every once in awhile I talked with someone who seemed like they were actually interested, then I could actually talk with them about our products very intelligently because I knew them inside and out. I started getting a few sales and having fun.
After a few days I had worked my way through my list (calling and emailing everyone 1 time), I told my boss. She told me that she was too busy to sit down and do any sales training with me yet, but that I'm doing well, so just figure out a way to find more leads and quote them. She also said cold calling is a waste of time and not to bother with it. My "sales director" was even less help, either sitting in his office with his door closed or out taking meetings somewhere.
I ignored the advice not to cold call, started prospecting and keeping lists of who I've been trying to contact in excel since we didn't have a CRM. Eventually my dumb ass remembered that I had a list of people who never answered their phone, so I kept calling and emailing those contacts too. By the end of my first month there I was out selling our "sales director", doubling his numbers by the end of month 2. By month 3 he was let go and I was handed his list of contacts. My title at this point was still just "sales" and I would be doing everything from prospecting to account management. I still hadn't sat down with our VP for any sales training at this point.
I realised that I'm doing well, but I could be doing much much better. I found a 3 day "fundamentals of selling" training seminar and pitched it to my boss. She said she's fine with me going if I want to spend my time doing that, but I still have to be making sales through that week, and I was instructed to take lots of notes so I could teach what I learn to the inside sales rep.
I'm going to end here because it's getting too long and I don't want to go through my whole history at the company.
So let's hear them from you, whats your best and worst "onboarding" at a company?
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